Jul 29, 2020     PROJECT SOLD Category: Fuselage

This project has been sold.

  Nov 25, 2019     Antenna mounting       Category: Fuselage

Mounted the antenna on the antenna plate welded to the fuselage. You can see a lot more this video on my "Kitplane Enthusiast" YouTube channel..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P6DIPWaF1Q&t=1s

  Oct 28, 2019     Re-Assembling       Category: Empennage

Before fabric covering, I want to fully assemble the airplane again and check all the rigging and fit of the flight controls. This was already done by the previous builder, but remember that I disassembled all of the control rods for cleaning. So everything is now out of adjustment. So today I'm working on installing the horizontal tail (and later the rudder). Mike, my friend and previous builder, made these nice hinge covers. I'm not sure if they are all for the tail or if some go on the horizon stab, but either way, they are complete but the edges still need some finishing work.

I spent an hour or so working on the center console piece. The part you see riveted was riveted with domed rivets so I drilled them out and used solid aluminum counter sunk rivets instead. I did this because I want the top flat because I plan on wrapping this with carbon fiber looking vinyl. Also, instead of having the side panels attach with sheet metal screws, I think a more 'correct' way to do it is to use nutplates. So I drilled out the holes and added nut plates to each hole.

  Oct 27, 2019     Rudder Pedals       Category: Controls

Finished making the four cable guards for the pulleys. Built the two levers for the adjustable rudder pedals. Painted the bottom end of the flap lever where I had to grind a little bit away for it to fit in the fuselage. Then, I installed the pedals so I can start working on the rudder cables.

I think it might be a good idea to build all of the fuel lines before I get into fabric covering. I think it just might be easier while there is no skin on the airplane. So this evening I mounted the header tank. It's just cleco'd in place for now so I can remove it later and install the fittings. At this point, I'm not completely sure of the fuel line routing, or the correct size of fuel line to use for the Rotax 912iS engine. So some more research is needed before I start making the aluminum fuel lines.

  Oct 26, 2019     Rudder Pedal Install       Category: Controls

Now that everything is painted or powder coated black, it is time to re-install the rudder pedals. I have to make 4 cable guards that go around the pulley. These guards keep the rudder cable from jumping out of the pulley. Kitfox supplies two strips of steel about 1 foot long and they have to be cut, drilled, and bent to fit. Each one takes about 30 minutes to make. Today I made two for the passenger side, and maybe tomorrow I'll make the other two. I just realized while working on this that everything, including the floor boards has to come out again to cover and paint the fuselage. So a lot of building this plane involves building, installing, and then taking it all apart again for paint!

In the last two pics you can see the required modification to the rudder pedals to add the adjustable rudder pedal kit. The tops of the pulley brackets need to be cut off and then the ends cleaned up and rounded. Once that work was complete, I primed and painted them black.

  Jan 19, 2019     Re-Assembly       Category: Controls

With the parts painted black, it is time to re-assemble things. You will notice white and black parts. It would be a lot of (needless) work to paint everything black, so I only painted the parts that will be visible after the fuselage is covered and painted.

  Oct 28, 2018     Painting the Airframe Black       Category: Fuselage

I want all visible parts of the airframe and rudder pedals to be black. So while I had everything disassembled for cleaning, I painted the forward part of the airframe black. I also bought the adjustable rudder pedal kit from Kitfox so I had to cut out the old rudder cables.

  Oct 08, 2018     Disassembling Everything.       Category: Controls

Because everything was sitting for about 5 years, I am disassembling everything and cleaning things up. All of the parts that were not painted, I am priming and painting. All rod ends are getting cleaning and shined up with Flitz.

  Oct 07, 2018     Buying a Pre-Started Kit       Category: Controls

I bought this kit from my good friend Mike Fisher. He previously built a beautiful Kitfox Model IV Speedster. Due to various reasons, Mike was unable to finish this project and I bought it so that I could finish it.

  Oct 06, 2018     About This Project       Category: About

I purchased this Kitfox Series 7 Super Sport from my friend who, for various reasons, could not continue building. This kit has the factory built wing option, and included lot of extras like nav/strobe lights, and landing lights. A lot of the hard work has already been completed like the filling and sanding of all the tips of the flying surfaces, control installation, and wing rigging. The project did sit in a hangar for about 5 years when I bought it so it was quite dirty and some of parts were starting to get rusty.

Once I brought the project home, I completely dis-assembled everything and cleaned all the parts and re-assembled them. I replaced a lot of hardware and all of the aluminum brackets that were bare metal, I primed and painted. The airframe came from the Kitfox factory powder coated white, and I wanted it to be black. So I painted all of the fuselage tubes that will be visible once the airplane is done and painted. Powder coating makes an excellent primer so all that was required was to scuff up the surface and paint. In order to paint the fuselage, I had to cut out the rudder pedal cables to get them out of the way. Since they were cut out, I decided to buy and install the adjustable rudder pedal kit which required some modification to the steel parts of the pedal assembly.

Be sure to head over to YouTube and subscribe to my channel called "Kitplane Enthusiast". I have lots of videos about my Zenith Cruzer kit, and now I'm making videos about this Kitfox project.